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What is the Saskatchewan Municipal Board?
The actions of government agencies affect every aspect of our lives,
from what we eat to the appropriate levels of compensation for work-related
injuries. The government makes laws. The authority to carry out
or administer these laws is delegated to various government ministers,
departments and agencies. Government agencies are given authority
to set policies and make decisions about how the law will be carried
out. This area of the law is called administrative law. Administrative
tribunals, such as the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB), are generally
involved in deciding issues of a regulatory or judicial nature.
Tribunals exist for two major reasons. First, they are set up to
resolve issues specific to regulations governing an activity or
industry. In the case of the SMB, the tribunal was set up for regulatory
and judicial purposes in dealing with issues from local authorities
(school divisions and municipal governments). The board’s
regulatory function is to review the debt obligations of local authorities
and oversee the financial health of municipalities. The judicial
function is to judge, at the provincial level, appeals from the
general public in municipal matters relating to property tax assessments,
municipal planning and development issues, and municipal orders
such as property maintenance orders. The second reason for their
existence is to provide a cost effective method of litigation to
unburden the court system.
The SMB was created on October 1, 1988. The Municipal Board Act
provided for consolidation of the former Saskatchewan Local Government
Board, Saskatchewan Assessment Appeals Board, Provincial Planning
Appeals Board, and Saskatchewan Municipal Boundary Commission.
What does the Board do?
The SMB is legislatively mandated and is empowered to exercise discretion
of a regulatory and judicial nature. The board is to ensure financial
credibility for cities, towns, villages, northern and rural municipalities
and school divisions, and ensure appeals respecting planning, assessment,
fire prevention, municipal boundary, and conservation and development
are heard and decided.
The major activities of the board are as follows:
- Provide a service to the general public and municipalities by
hearing appeals at the provincial level on matters that require
specialized knowledge. Common matters of appeal include planning
and development; assessed value of real property; local improvement
assessment; tax exempt status of a property; conservation and
development area authority property assessments; and orders and
certificates issued by the provincial fire commissioner’s
office;
- Review local authorities’ long term debt applications
for approval, to ensure financial stability and, to provide assurance
of the local authority’s financial stability to taxpayers
and lenders.
- Provide advice and approvals to local authorities on capital
financing, debt management, investment of surplus funds, utility rates and
local improvements;
- Provide a service to municipalities by reviewing applications
for alteration of municipal boundaries or amalgamation of municipalities
where there is a disagreement over the alteration or amalgamation.
How does the Board fulfil its mandate?
The board fulfils the majority of its mandate through "working"
committees, all of which interact with municipal governments. Some
of these committees are:
Other duties of the board include:
- resolving disputes where an agreement to fix the assessed value
or property taxes on farm land in an urban municipality cannot
be reached.
As a government agency, the board is responsible for its own administration
in the areas of budget, staffing, maintaining records, systems,
and reporting structure. The chairman of the board is the permanent
head and is responsible for the administrative functions and activities
of the agency.
Board membership
A Chair, Vice-Chair and two members comprise the full-time membership
of the board. The board presently has 18 part-time members who sit
on the various working committees of the board. Board members are
appointed by order in council. Minimum qualifications for members
are stipulated in the Saskatchewan Municipal Board Member Qualifications
Regulations, 2003. Full-time members are appointed for up to ten-year
terms and part-time members for three-year terms. All appointments
are subject to reappointment on the expiry date of the term.
How are members assigned to committee work?
The Chair of the board assigns part-time members and part-time Chairs
to a committee based on workload and specific qualifications required
for individual committee work.
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